REVIVAL OR CAPTIVITY? – LESSON 2
“Questions to Ask in Difficult Times”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
When you are in a trial, my friend, when you are confronted by an enemy, or when any sort of difficulty comes your way, there are four questions that you need to ask yourself. We want to look at those four questions. They are found in the text. As we go to these Old Testament kings, and as we walk through the Kings, and as we walk through the prophets, you and I need to realize that these things, as we saw last week, are examples for us. They are lessons, and I am so excited about the lessons that you and I are going to see when we confront trials, what do we do. What do we learn from the text that we have studied?
The first question that you need to ask is this: Does God change? Whenever you are in a trial, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “Does God change?” The second question is: Am I going to believe Him? The third question is: Hasn’t He given me His Son? And the fourth question is: Isn’t God with us? Whenever I am in a trial, (1) Does God change? (2) Am I going to believe Him? (3) Hasn’t He given me His Son? (4) Is God not with me? If you will ask those four questions, and realize what the answers are, then you are going to move through that trial. You will be able to handle that enemy that confronts you; you will be able to go through that as more than a conqueror. You are not going to panic. Why panic? Believe, and you will stand firm. Does that ring a bell? Yes, it does ring a bell, because it is a verse that you saw as you studied Isaiah 7.
All this week we have focused on one king—one king who did evil in the sight of the Lord, and his name was Ahaz. Ahab was the son of Jotham, and Jotham did right in the sight of the Lord. Jotham had a daddy that reigned for fifty-two years, and his name was Uzziah. Uzziah did right in the sight of the Lord also. So here is Ahaz, who had a godly heritage, and yet he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Go to 2 Chronicles 28. I know that you have reviewed this, but hang in there with me, and let’s review it one more time, because they say that you have to see a commercial so many times before it sticks anyway, and this is far more important than a commercial. (1) “Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done.” [What dynasty is he from? He is from the tribe of Judah, and the house of David. As the king of Judah, instead of walking like David, his father, did…] (2) “But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel;” [How did the kings of Israel do? When the kingdom divided in 931 B.C. and Jeroboam took the northern kingdom (which was the kingdom of Israel), what was the first thing that he did? He made himself two golden calves, and led the people into idolatry. Ahaz is doing as the kings of Israel.] (3) “Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Benhinnom, and burned his sons in fire,” [That means that he gave his sons to the gods of Molech, an ugly, ugly god. Molech was like a furnace of fire, and there was a chute. They would take their children, and they would slide them down that chute, right into the mouth of that idol with that burning fire. This is what he did to his sons, his own flesh and blood.] “according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel.” [In other words, when they took the land, they took the land of Canaan because the inhabitants, the Canaanites before them, the Amorites , the Perrizites, Hittites, all the “ites,” had done all these abominations. When their cup of iniquity was full, when the iniquity of the Amorites was complete, then God moved the children of Israel in to take over that land, and now the children of Israel have done just like the former inhabitants.]
(4) “And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. (5) “Wherefore” [And I would underline that, or mark it.] “the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram; and they defeated him and carried from him a great number of captives, and brought them to Damascus,” [Now where is Damascus, in relationship to Jerusalem? It is north, up in Aram.] “And he also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who inflicted him with heavy casualties. (6) For Pekah the son of Ramaliah (king of Israel) slew in Judah 120, 000 in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. (7) And Zichri, a might man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king’s son,” [So he loses his son.] “and Azrikam the ruler of the house and Elkanah the second to the king. (8) The sons of Israel carried away captive of their brethren 200,000 women, sons, and daughters; and took also a great deal of spoil from them, and they brought the spoil to Samaria.” [All of this happened because Ahaz was unfaithful. Ahaz was unfaithful, and they had forsaken the Lord. My question is: (Look at v. 19) why was Ahaz unfaithful?]
(19) “For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the Lord.” (22) “Now in the time of his distress” [When things are going hard—when he is confronted by an enemy. When he is in a difficult situation, what does he do?] “this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the Lord.” [So, I ask the question, as I read it, “Why did Ahaz do evil? Why was he unfaithful? Why did he think he could get away with it? Why do you do evil? Why do I do what is wrong? Why do we think that we can get away with it? Don’t we know that God does not change?” Any time when you and I are in a difficult situation, the question we need to ask is, “Does God change?” If God does not change, then however I respond in that situation (because God doesn’t change) He has got to respond or react to me in character, and according to His character. This is what we need to see. If you did evil, if you choose to do evil, do you think God is going to change, and this time He is not going to punish you? If you think that you can have an affair, or if you go on the Internet and you can look at these things, or that you can lie, or you can steal, I want to ask you a question. Do you think God has changed? Do you think you can get away with it? No, you can’t get away with it, because God doesn’t change. God is who He was. God is immutable; He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, I want to grab hold of Ahaz, and say, “Ahaz, think! Think! What makes you think you can go against the God of heaven? What makes you think, Ahaz, that God is going to change, and that you are going to get away with it? What makes you think that?” Doesn’t God reward those who walk uprightly? Doesn’t He have this example?
Go to 2 Chronicles 26:5, talking about Uzziah (or Azariah, as he is also called). What should Ahaz know, because Ahaz has ruled during the time that his father Jotham ruled. They had a joint reign. Jotham ruled during the time that Uzziah ruled; they had a joing reign. These men were connected, so to speak. They knew what was going on. (5) “And he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding though the vision of God; and as long as sought the Lord, God prospered him.” [Hasn’t Ahaz seen and known that God prospered his grandpa, and he prospered his grandpa because his grandpa sought him?]
Look at 2 Chronicles 27:5, talking about Ahaz’s daddy. (5) “He (Jotham) fought also with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed over them so that the Ammonites gave him during that year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. The Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second and in the third year. (6) “So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.” [Why did Ahaz not walk that way when he knew that God had blessed him? Did he think God had changed? Did he think that he could turn away from God, and turn to the arm of flesh (which is what he is going to do)? He is going to go up and get the king of Assyria; he is going to take him silver, and all these things, and try to buy his protection? Why is Ahaz doing that? Why is he turning to the arm of flesh? Has anyone ever turned to the arm of flesh, and had God bless them? No.
If we see that in those kings, we need to ask our own question: Why do we, in the time of trial, turn to the arm of flesh? Why do we, in the time of trial, run to human help before we run to divine help? Why do we do that? Has God changed? Is He incapable? Has anyone ever lived that way (in sin) and gotten away with it? Can you sin and not be judged? No, you can’t, because God doesn’t change, and God is holy. If in a trial, if in a situation, when I am tempted to turn to the arm of flesh, when I am tempted to walk my own way, if I would stop and rein myself in, and say, “Wait a minute! Does God change? What have I learned about God as I have studied through the word of God? (The best way to study through the word of God is to begin at the beginning, and move on through, so that you really understand Him, and understand His ways, and understand this divine revelation that is being opened up before you.) If you go back, you can see one thing—that you can never sin and get away with it. He saw that in Grandpa. He saw that God blessed him while he sought the Lord, but when Grandpa Uzziah became strong, and he thought that he could do whatever he wanted to do, Uzziah forgot that God does not change. He forgot that one day two sons of Aaron (Adab and Abihu) thought that God had changed, and that they could offer God any kind of incense that they wanted, and God killed them. (Leviticus 10) Uzziah forgot that God does not change. Now Ahaz looks back, and sees that Grandpa was fine as long as he sought the Lord, but when Grandpa became independent of God, and he walked into the temple to the altar of incense, then he became a leper—and he died a leper. We have got to stop and think, in any situation or any trial, “Okay, I am in this trial. Now, is God going to change?” If He is not going to change, if He is who He is, if He is immutable, then, I, in that trial or that situation, need to act how? I need to act according to who God is.
If God does not change, then you can trust Him. Have you got it? If God does not change, then you can trust what you know about Him, or you can trust what the Bible teaches you, whether you know it or not. You can trust Him. It is a matter of faith. Go to Isaiah 7:1. The reason I read 2 Chronicles 28 is because we are looking at a situation that happens before Rezin (king of Aram) and Pekah actually attack and try to take Jerusalem. So this is what we are looking at. (1) “Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it (Jerusalem).” [That is important; that is why you double underline your geographical locations. They went up against the Holy City; they went up against Mount Zion. They went up to the city where God had put His name, and where God had put His temple. They went to wage war against it, but they couldn’t conquer it.]
(2) “When it was reported to the house of David (at this time it was Ahaz) saying, ‘The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,’ his heart and the hearts of the people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.” [He is hearing, “They are up there in Ephraim.” Ephraim is around Samaria, and is in the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom was referred to as the Ephraim, because it was the largest of the ttribes. They are going to come against him, and he hears the word, and he is literally trembling, and the people are too. They know that they are done, so as this happens, God, because God does not change, because God keeps His promises, comes to Isaiah.] (3) “Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field,” [“Go there and meet him.” You can just imagine—maybe Ahaz has not met his son, so he introduces him to his son. So he introduces him to Ahaz, and he says, “Ahaz, I want you to meet my son, Shear-jashub (which means, “a remnant will return.)” So, right away, there is a promise. There is a promise in the introduction of that son. It is not all going to be lost; there is going to be a remnant. A remnant will return. This is my son’s name, Shear-jashub.” As he introduces Shear-jashub, he makes a statement with his name.]
(4) “and say to him, ‘Take care, and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, the sons of Remaliah. (5) Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah (Pekah), has planned evil against you, saying,” [Have you ever had somebody tell you, “Oh, I want you to know, they are out to get you. They are going to level you. They are going to get you out of that job. They are going to tell lies about you. They are plotting against you.” What happens? You just go (shaking), and this is what is happening. He is going (shaking), because he hears about the evil. What is he to do? He is to do those four things that I am telling you about. The first thing he is to realize is: God doesn’t change. That is his hope; that is his anchor in the midst of this. Watch what it says!]
(6) “‘Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,’” [Immediately, if Ahaz was clinging to God, if Ahaz was remembering what he had been taught, then Ahaz would know, “It cannot happen. It absolutely cannot happen, because (in 2 Samuel 7) God made a promise to David, my father.